The present invention relates to an airbag apparatus that is provided in a vehicle such as a car.
Hitherto, an airbag apparatus has been used to restrain an occupant by actuating a gas generator to inflate an airbag when a vehicle crashes, overturns, or is involved in other emergency situations (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
This airbag apparatus includes an airbag stored in a folded state and a gas generator (inflator) that supplies gas to the airbag. When a vehicle is subjected to an impact load more than or equal to a predefined value, the gas generated by the gas generator is supplied into the airbag, thereby inflating and deploying the airbag.
In addition, this airbag includes a circular mounting-side panel cloth and a circular occupant-side panel cloth that is arranged so as to oppose the mounting-side panel cloth. A pair of left and right exhaust ports (gas vent holes) is provided in an upper portion of the occupant-side panel cloth.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-271736
The above-described related art document discloses the general structure of an airbag apparatus in which exhaust ports are provided in an airbag.
To optimize the airbag apparatus having such a structure, operational timing for inflating and deploying of the airbag and a gas exhausting operation from the exhaust ports are required to be optimized from the viewpoint of reducing harm to an occupant.
An object of the present invention is to provide an airbag apparatus for optimizing the operational timing of an inflating and deploying operation of an airbag and a gas exhausting operation from an exhaust port.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention/